IN recent weeks, news media have been reporting youth gangs involved in fistfights, stabbing and riots across Metro Manila. Last Jan. 19 in Fairview, Quezon City, youth gangs ages 14 to 16 were arrested due to a violent melee where one victim suffered multiple stab wounds. In June 2025 in Valenzuela City, local officials declared 13 street gangs as “persona non grata” due to their links with drug use, vandalism and violent behavior. These were mostly organized by minors notorious for their anti-social behavior, such as the True Brown Style (TBS), Little Brown Style (LBS), Nortenos Loccos, Temple St. (TST), and Original Trouble Maker Gang (OTM), among others. When these rival gangs meet in the streets, violent clashes and throwing of deadly projectiles erupt, prompting residents to flee and take cover. Many of these gangs have roots in slum communities and would often graduate into hardcore criminal activities. Police and social welfare services are alarmed by the temerity and ferocity of these youth gangs. They have no code of honor or sense of purpose. Their struggling parents also cannot rein them in and stop them from continuing to associate with these gangs. As a result, citizens are now gripped by fear and anxiety when they see youths gathering in the streets.
The Philippines’ surging population faced without adequate economic opportunities and social infrastructure is one of the root causes in the spread of these youth gangs. With stubborn urban poverty, the government is under immense strain to curb gang violence, riots, street fights, thefts, rapes and drug use. During the September 2025 rallies against the DPWH corruption scandal, several youth gangs hijacked the peaceful protest and sowed havoc in business stores along Recto Avenue in Manila. Young hoodlums and anarchists beat up anti-riot policemen and set fire to a motel.
The World Bank’s recent data on crude birth rates per 1,000 people in 2023 revealed that more developed Asian countries — China, Japan and South Korea — tend to have lower birth rates compared to developing states like the Philippines.
Poor families in the Philippines unabatedly give birth to more children despite the absence of any economic opportunities or government subsidies. The country’s crude birth rate is one of the highest in the region at 16 per 1,000 people. We see many children on public roads begging for alms or indulging in petty crimes. Many minor girls even get pregnant as young as 12 or are traded into prostitution to support their families. The swelling youth population is a liability to the Philippines if no quality education, proper health care and available jobs are generated for them. Such a scarce environment breeds social unrest, criminality and even revolutions as our youth population descends into anger and disenchantment.
Amid the economic slowdown and political conflicts, the Philippines’ marginalized youth easily fall prey to the recruitment of notorious street gangs due to social alienation and lack of parental care. The real menace of youth gangs in many cities has threatened the people’s safety and driven away businesses and tourists. With 60 percent of our voters estimated to be composed of the youth in 2028, it likewise endangers our democratic system. Thus, it is vital for the whole-of-society to save them from these gangs before they metastasize into entrenched criminal networks like in the favelas of Brazil and Columbia. Local chief executives, Philippine National Police and the Department of Social Welfare and Development must wage a war against youth gangsterism and use stringent powers to detain their leaders and institute citywide curfews for minors.
It is painful to think that the future of our next generation is at risk as our youth gets dragged into violence, riots and gangsterism. It is a foreboding monster lurking and ready to pounce on the nation’s security and public order. History will judge us if we fail to confront this existential threat to the country’s tomorrow.
